Assisted suicide bill introduced in Mass.

Friday

Five years after voters defeated a ballot question that would have allowed physician-assisted suicide in Massachusetts, the issue of end-of-life care is getting renewed attention.

Five years after voters defeated a ballot question that would have allowed physician-assisted suicide in Massachusetts, the issue of end-of-life care is getting renewed attention.

“It’s an individual decision and it should be that person’s choice,” said state Rep. Louis Kafka, D-Stoughton, who recently filed a new bill that would allow terminally ill patients to ask doctors to prescribe drugs they could take to end their own lives. “They choose all their life how they live. It should be that person’s choice at the end of their life how they should die.”

Kafka, who initially filed the bill in 2009 at the request of a terminally ill constituent, has repeatedly filed a version of the legislation ever since, although it’s never come up for a vote. After the constituent died from stomach cancer, Kafka pledged to the man’s family that he would work to pass the bill. Sen. Barbara L’Italien, D-Andover, is the bill’s lead sponsor in the Senate.

The current version of the bill comes as the Massachusetts Medical Society, which has a policy opposing physician-assisted suicide, is preparing to perform its first-ever survey of its membership on the topic.

“We realize attitudes about this are changing and thought it would be prudent to survey our members,” said Dr. James Gessner, president of the MMS.

The move, he added, is not necessarily indicative of a future policy change from the MMS, but is rather an effort to assess the views of the member physicians in the society.

“We will endeavor to answer that, then it will be up to our House of Delegates,” he said.

The House of Delegates, the Massachusetts Medical Society’s parliamentary board, is responsible for proposing and approving policies. In 2012, approximately 75 percent of the House of Delegates voted to reaffirm the MMS’s opposition to physician-assisted suicide.

“Since 1996, we have felt it is fundamentally incompatible with what a physician’s role is as a healer,” Gessner said.

Kafa and L’Italien’s bills, however, will be decided in the state Legislature, not the MMS. Legislative leadership has been hesitant to act on previous assisted suicide proposals.

The current legislation would allow terminally ill patients with six months to live to request a prescription for a life-ending drug. Because the doctors would prescribe, but not administer, the drugs, Kafka says the term “physician-assisted suicide” is a misnomer.

Under the bill, which was introduced as the “End of Life Options Act,” individual physicians would not be forced to prescribe life-ending drugs. Patients would have to make multiple requests, both oral and written, and sign documents in the presence of multiple witnesses. They would also be required to undergo a mental health evaluation to ensure they aren’t suffering from depression, dementia or any other mental health condition that could impact their decision-making, Kafka said.

John Kelly, director of Boston-based Second Thoughts, an organization that opposes assisted suicide and advocates for people with disabilities, has many concerns with the bill.

In states such as Oregon and Washington, where assisted suicide is legal, patients who seek to end their own lives commonly cite a fear of being disabled and dependent on others for care, Kelly said.

“We campaign against the mindset that it’s better to be dead than disabled,” he said. “The focus should be on providing a compassionate and supportive environment.”

Kelly said he worries about patients making uninformed or premature decisions.

“Like all assisted suicide bills, it puts innocent people in danger because of the inevitability of misdiagnosis, coercion, the influence of insurance companies’ bottom lines and abuse,” he said.

Kafka argues that the proposal has adequate safeguards to prevent such scenarios from happening.

Oregon, Washington, Montana, Vermont, California and Colorado are currently the only states that allow physician-assisted suicide, according to the national nonprofit Death With Dignity. The California and Colorado laws just took effect last year.

Kafka said he has had many conversations over the years with terminally ill people who live in severe pain and wish they had a legal option to choose how they die.

“My commitment to the issue has gotten stronger every year that’s gone by,” he said.